The Edge of Night
by Remvis
Summary: Mercenaries and Space Pirates, the galaxy is full of adventure just waiting to happen. Join Russell, CJ, and Andrew as they shoot down bad guys, make deals with unexpected allies, and find romance, all while trying to help save the universe from the Reapers. T for blood, violence, and baddy deaths
1. Chapter 1

If there was one thing that Russell was good at, it would probably have to be making pizzas. Unfortunately, pizza making skills don't particularly help you when you are running for your life in the slums of Omega, with Batarians trying to kill you around every corner.

"Die scum!" Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Russell dodged behind some crates as bullets tore through where his head had been a second ago.

"I swear I didn't do it!" The young human shouted as he stood on the other side of the crates and booked it towards the next alleyway. He had been running all day, and it all started back in the market- or rather, what worked for a market in the slums on Omega. He was selling a bunch of scrap tech to some shady looking Hanar.

While he was in the process of doing business, an Elcor merchant had approached, gotten into some argument with the Hanar, and before Russell knew it, there were Batarians everywhere shooting everything up. The young man had no idea why it started, but he was starting to think that coming to this side of Omega was a bad choice.

Russell ran up to a closed door, and when it wouldn't open up immediately, he used his omni tool to hack the lock and rushed inside just before a group of Batarians rounded the corner of the alleyway he had ran up.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" Came a gruff sounding voice. Russell turned around slowly from the door, finding himself in the presence of an imposing and heavily armed Krogan with two Varren that were watching him with wary eyes.

Russell froze; he didn't want to jump from the pan into the fire, and aggravating a Krogan warrior was certainly not a fire that he wanted to jump into.

"Varren got your tongue kid? Tell me your name, before I sick Grim and Reaper here on you."

"My name's Russell Nox, and I'm running from some Batarians who want to kill me for some reason." He said to the older Alien. "I was just seeking some safety from them and I accidentally stumble-"

"A group of Batarians trying to kill you and you run away? Ha, if you couldn't fight a troop of Batarians, you shouldn't be in the most dangerous part of town, Human."

Russell wasn't necessarily ashamed of himself. He knew that he had little to no experience fighting people; hell, all he had on him was a knife given to him by a friend back on Earth. That was hardly something that he could use to reliably fight a group of people trying to kill him, right?

"Hmmm. Here's a gun." The Krogan said, standing up and pulling out a pistol. He handed it over to the young man, who stared at the gun, and then at the Krogan in slight confusion.

"I've been wanting a good fight recently, and I noticed you don't have anything to kill with, so I'm going to help you out human."

Wow, that was rather unexpected. "Thanks," Russell started, but the Krogan interrupted with, "Don't thank me yet, I haven't even done anything yet."

And with that, the Huge alien maneuvered to the door, and kicking it down, said, "Come on kid, looks like you need a little bloody hands," before he charged out of the room. Russell timidly followed him out, just in time to see the Krogan pull out the giant Warhammer that had been strapped to his back and slam it down on two armed Batarians.

The two Varren that had been with the Krogan burst out of the room as well and started ripping to shreds the backup that came when they heard their friend's screams. Russell watched the fighting- no, the slaughter in front of him. The Krogan was fast- quite possibly the fastest Krogan that Russell had ever seen. He appeared to be blinking from one target to the next, either body slamming them point blank range into a wall, or slamming his hammer into their skulls, their hip bones, anything that it touched got crushed instantly, and his Varren pets jumped on any stragglers and ripped out their throats.

Russell was in shock, which might be why he got flanked by a Batarian, who held a gun up to his head before the young human knew what was going on. Russell froze for a moment before a gunshot rang out, and suddenly the Batarian was clutching his hand as it steamed; someone had shot the gun out of his hand. Russell snapped out of his reverie and turned towards the still imposing Batarian and shot him with the pistol that the Krogan had lent him, hitting him in the shoulder. The young man pulled the trigger over and over, pouring bullets into the Batarian thug, until all that was left of him was a quivering husk.

"Haha! Good kill kid!" The Krogan called out as he pulled his Hammer clean from a fresh corpse. There weren't any more living Batarians in the area. "And nice shot Andrew, that gun went flying!" A Salarian came from out of the shadows, a hundred or so meters away, and slung his sniper rifle behind his back before rubbing the back of his head.

"CJ, you get yourself into fights too easily, and I've been monitoring the situation for an hour. As soon as I saw the human here enter your door and the Batarians following him; I knew that you'd be out soon and I figured I'd follow up with coverage, not that you need it against petty thugs like these."

"Haha, still though, good followup; that's why I keep you around!" The Krogan exclaimed, laughing heartily, confusing Russell a little bit. A Salarian and a Krogan working together, and friends with each other? It seemed highly unlikely, but here it was in front of him.

"Ah, I have not introduced myself yet. My name is Andrew Lanor, and this here is Crutarok Jayak, or CJ for short."

"Hey, why don't I get to introduce myself?" CJ asked, sounding quite indignant.

"Because you introduced us both last time, it was my turn to introduce us." Said the Salarian, before turning his attention back to Russell, extending a hand. "Nice to meet you…"

"Russell. Russell Nox." Russell took the Salarian's hand and shook it firmly, taking stock of the two. As previously noticed, the Salarian had a sniper rifle slung on a belt around his shirt. He wore no specific armor except for a pair of leather pauldrons that covered his shoulders, equipped with what look to be small shield generators attached to them.

The Krogan, CJ, was wearing an armored plate chest piece, and scaled chain leggings. His feet were bare, and he had what looked to be bandages covering his bare arms. On his back was his gigantic Krogan Warhammer, inlaid with rubies and sapphires, with golden spikes all along the sides of it's length.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Russell Nox. My companion and I were here to take down a group of bandits that were harassing the people in the slums her on Omega. We finished a few days ago and met with a doctor here to patch up our wounds, one Dr. Solus, I believe his name was. We were just resting up a bit before heading out on our next mission."

CJ grunted. "Yeah, just tell him our life's story while you're at it Andrew. It isn't like this pipsqueak could help us or anything, so we might as well just move on. We already had a good fight here, so let's go."

The Krogan began walking away before stopping slightly and turned to the side to look back at the two of them. "Oh, and keep the pistol, kid, I've got plenty of them and you sure looked like you could use it."

He turned away once more and headed in the direction that he had previously been walking in. The Salarian gave him a look of apology before heading off to catch up to the Krogan.

Russell looked after the two retreating figures. What adventures would they have without him? What kinds of things has he been missing out on? He looked at the pistol in his hands. He had killed someone else, somebody who had been trying to kill him. He looked at the two people who had helped him out. Who would be around to help him out the next time he got into trouble? He didn't exactly have any friends, as sad as that sounds.

But at least there were a couple of people, those two in front of him, people who could and might watch his back if he joined them. People who would go on adventures that Russell could never dream of having by himself.

He took a step forwards before hesitating for a second. The Krogan was right, he didn't know how to fight, he would simply be a liability in the case of an actual life or death situation. But, he could get better. Stronger. More skilled. He could become a worthy ally for the two of those aliens that had helped him out.

"Wait a minute, let me join you!" Russell called out as he chased after them.

"You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?" Andrew asked his friend.

"He was either a spineless fool with no future, or someone who had never been given a chance to succeed. I gave him a choice that would show which he was, and he made the decision himself," chuckled the Krogan as they both turned around to the human who was now approaching them.

"We'll let you join us on two conditions. One, don't get in my way. And Two, Andrew is our tactician, run all ideas by him before you act or you risk getting one of us or yourself killed." CJ paused, giving the human time to catch up to the pair. "If you can accept and follow those rules, you can join us."

Andrew looked at the human in front of him as Russell nodded. "It looks like we've got a new member to our little gang of mercenaries. Welcome to the club, Russell Nox."

Russell looked between the two of them, and gave a wide smile. "Glad to be a part of it, now let's get going to that next mission that you guys mentioned."

"Haha!" I like this kid already, he's got guts for such a weakling!" CJ announced, clapping a hand on the human's back. "We're on our way to the Pylos Nebula next, heard some talk of a group of Pirates that have been stealing cargo from the Quarians. I'm sure if we put a stop to it, we'll have quite a welcoming party at the Flotilla."

Russell looked forwards as they walked and talked about their plans. He had quite the adventure ahead of him.


	2. Chapter 2

"What do you mean that we're getting boarded?" Asked the pirate leader, sounding somewhat astonished. "We've got the best electromagnetic sensors that money could buy, and no entrance point to the ship except for the docking terminal. Unless you mean to say that someone built in an electromagnetic scrambler and is directly under us, that should be impossible."

"Sorry sir, it's just that we got a boarding request from seemingly out of nowhere. It appears to be coming from the docking terminal. What should we do?"

"Well we certainly can't accept the request." The pirate leader rationalized. "it very well could be someone aiming to take down our operation. Deny the request."

"Well, at least they can't say we didn't ask." CJ smiled as they got the return message. "Now I don't feel bad about breaking in the front door."

"Andrew, you in position?" CJ asked into the transponder that he held in his hand.

"I'm in position CJ." Andrew said from where he was watching. He had infiltrated the pirates' ship already and was sitting in the control room, overlooking the security cameras. He looked down at the bodies of the pirates that we in charge of security. "A little trouble getting here, but nothing too serious. It looks like the coast is clear guys, at least for another minute or so, the captain of this ship is sending reinforcements to the docking terminal, but they're taking a bit to set up so you should be good to go."

"Alright, let us know where to go once we break in." CJ said to the Salarian. "Come on Russell, let's show these losers who the boss around here is."

"You're talking about me right?" Russell asked sarcastically, lifting his pistol as if that made all the difference in the world.

"No, I'm talking about me," CJ laughed at his human friend. "You're just a lackey who's here for the shits and giggles. Now let's go!" And with that, CJ clipped his transponder to his armor and lifted his assault rifle as the Andrew opened the docking doors from the control room; allowing the two to rush onto the ship, ready for a fight if needed.

"Alright, so the ships halls are pretty straightforward from here," Andrew began, "you're in the hallway between the kitchen of the ship and the cargo hold, where these pirates keep all their stolen goods and supplies. Kitchen on left and Cargo on right. Currently there are two chefs in the kitchen, and three pirates in the cargo hold. The chefs don't appear to have any projectile weapons, but I would be wary about them coming at you from behind with knives, so I suggest you take them out first before going into the cargo hold to take out those thugs. There's a staircase in the cargo hold, where reinforcements will be coming from in a minute now, so get a move on."

"Gotcha man." CJ grunted out before he turned towards the kitchens and rushed in, catching the chefs by surprise as he shot them down in seconds. Russell kept a lookout from the doorway as the Krogan made one last sweep of the room, making sure it was clear of potential hostiles before they returned to the hallway and headed towards the cargo hold.

On entering the cargo hold, the two of them instantly noticed the increase in forces from three pirates to about eight. CJ put away his gun into its holster and pulled his warhammer off his back.

"Two snipers, off to each side, in vantage points high above you guys. Three others wielding guns, two without any weapons, and one fiddling with his omni tool, probably a tech guy. I suggest taking down the three without guns, they probably have biotic powers that'll be used for shielding allies; so taking them down will make this a faster fight and lead to you guys not having as many injuries." Andrew told them.

CJ used his biotic powers (Russell had been intrigued to find out that a Krogan could use biotics, but as long as CJ was using them on his enemies and not him, the human wasn't particularly apprehensive about it) to blink to the snipers, dispatching them with a quick knife to the throat for each of them. He then jumped down into the group of pirates below and slammed his Warhammer into two of them, instantly killing the tech pirate and one of the biotics.

Russell shot out from under cover from his position and aimed at the pirate near him; one with a gun and they began to shoot at one another. CJ grinned. The pirates around him scattered, not wanting to having to take down a Warhammer wielding Krogan warrior at close range, but with CJ's biotics, he caught all three of them in a matter of seconds.

CJ looked over to where Russell was still fighting the last pirate. Russell had some experience with a gun, but no real proper training and most of his shots were missing the pirate, going right passed his head. CJ took out his own pistol (He always had at least 3 of them on hand) and shot the pirate in the head, killing him.

"Come on kid, if you're gonna fight, at least do something." The Krogan joked, looking at the rest of the cargo hold. "I took all eight of those guys by myself and all you did was distract one of them!"

"It's not my fault that I'm useless!" The human joked back. In all honesty, it kind of was Russell's fault that he wasn't particularly useful in a firefight. He did in fact, have plenty of opportunities…

"Not completely useless, I think." Andrew mused over the transponder. "We can always use you as bait if it comes to it."

"Oh, that makes me feel so much better."

"Alright, we've got 5 more reinforcements coming down the staircase to your left, each of them have either grenade launchers or assault rifles. I'd recommend laying a trap for them at the bottom of the stairs."

And so Russell and CJ waited at the bottom of the staircase for about thirty seconds before the men came down and were completely demolished by a Krogan Warhammer and Russell's omni blade.

"Good job kid, that was a nice sucker punch there." CJ praised.

"Thanks." If there was one thing that Russell could do in a fight, it was throw a good punch, and with an omni blade on his arm, that meant a dead enemy in close quarters.

The two headed up the stairs slowly, waiting for a prompt from Andrew, and when none came, they rushed up the stairs to find the Salarian waiting for them in a hallway of dead pirates.

"There're only four guys left on the ship, and they're located in the navigation room and observation deck. I'll take the navigation deck and snipe out the two up there, you guys head to the observation deck and take out the leader and his right hand man."

The two nodded at Andrew's plan and headed down the opposite side of the hallway towards where the Pirate Leader was. He had his back turned to them, and they saw the other man standing off to the side.

"So this is where it ends." The Pirate Leader said, letting out a sigh. "You've taken out all of my men, and for what reason? I don't remember stealing from you or causing you issues."

CJ gave a dangerous grin. "You're stealing from the Quarians, and I've got some prize money to collect off your head. You've got a bounty of twenty two thousand credits, Moz'ru Jetai, and I intend on collecting."

Moz'ru turned around, revealing his face. A Turian, he had red warpaint over his eyes, striping down to his chin.

"Well then, get it over with; clearly I'm not going to win this fight." The Pirate Leader said, barely hiding his smirk as CJ approached. Russell, however saw it and activated a power that he hadn't needed to use in a long while.

A concussive blast resounded as a grenade blew up the spot around where CJ was located, however he was perfectly safe, because Russell had erected a biotic barrier just in time to absorb the damage.

"Nice blast, now it's my turn said the angry Krogan as he swung his Warhammer at the pirate leader, crushing his ribs and slamming him into the other pirate, who had come running at them. Russell dropped his barrier around his ally, utterly exhausted with the amount of energy that he had used to protect CJ.

"All good here," Andrew said, "Are you guys alright? I heard an explosion coming from the other room."

"Yeah, Russell came in clutch with a biotic shield for me, nice going kid."

Russell smiled bashfully. "it was nothing, I just saw the Turian grin as you approached and I knew something was up."

"Anyways, let's get the loot off this ship and send a message to the Quarian fleet, letting them know the pirates raiding their supply drops have stopped." CJ said with a grin.

"And so we took down the Turian Pirate Moz're Tekai, he had been the one stealing from your supply ships. We've got his ship on lockdown here the Pylos Nebula with a bunch of food and other things that I think you guys should be happy to have back. Send a supply ship and we'll be happy to help load it up for you guys." Andrew said over their ship's vid-comm.

A Quarian looked back through their vid-comm, acknowledging the help. "Thank you Andrew Lanor vas Poseidon. For your services, we shall compensate you for your aid to the Fleet."

Andrew gave a slight bow to the Quarian in front of him. "We shall await you here, Supplies Requisition Officer Fero'Shura vas Maagro." Fero'Shura nodded and cut the comm-link, leaving Andrew alone in the comm room. As he exited the room he encountered Russell and CJ talking about Russell's ability.

"Why didn't you tell us that you can create biotic barriers?" CJ inquired, "It would've been a huge help top know about things like that, now I know I can get more aggressive with you backing me up!"

"Hold up," Russell said, raising his hands in defense. "I'm not a strong biotic at all, my barrier could barely withstand the single grenade that the pirate had thrown. And even now, hours later I feel the drain of it. I can really only create a strong barrier once every couple of days, I have no real training with it."

"Most impressive, still, that you were able to create one so fast and block all of the damage from a grenade. Most Biotics, with the exception of course of the truly talented can react so quickly and harness the element zero inside them. Do you have an implant to help you control your power?" Andrew noted and asked the human.

Russell looked down for a moment before responding. "Yeah, my father paid for the surgery when I was seven years old. But that was over twelve years ago, and the implant drains too much energy if I use it consistently, so I try to use my biotics as little as possible."

"Understandable, that must mean, you were born in 2163, right when the starship failures caused a bunch of new human babies to have biotic potential… given your shielding potential, and no other biotic abilities yet to be shown, you probably have the Sirta Foundation Unity Amp, which lines up with when you got the implant, Sirta was pretty popular around that time." Andrew mused.

"Anyways, like I said, I can't exactly use my shields very often. I got exhausted more and more depending on how often and long I use my abilities, believe me I've tried." Russell said to the pair of them.

"Regardless, this could be a failsafe in case things go wrong for us. Just goes to show you aren't totally useless, like you said Russell!" CJ laughed out, clapping his hand on the human's back. "This adventure is actually looking to be a little fun!"


	3. Chapter 3

Russell paced around the SS Poseidon, looking for something to do. He didn't really have much that he was good at, and aside from joining CJ and Andrew on their mercenary missions, he didn't exactly do much to help out the ship.

"Hey Russell, come over here!" The twenty year old human turned and saw Stauni, a Salarian who was sitting with his friends Scoot and John Junior, the two humans who worked with him down in the engine room.

Russell made his way over, wondering what Stauni could want. They weren't particularly friends, but then again he had only been on the ship for the past three weeks or so, and he wasn't a particularly social person.

"I was just telling my buddies here about how you made that awesome looking calzone the other day; do you know how to cook well?"

The young adult mulled it over a bit. "I guess I know how to cook a little," He admitted. "I served in a pizzeria for a year or two, and in some side kitchens helping the actual cooks out here and there, but I was never really in charge or anything."

"That's all well and good; you probably have the most cooking experience out of all of us here!" Scoot joked, earning an "ay" from John.

"In all honesty," Stauni began, leaning towards Russell. "We don't have a cook on this ship. Our last one took off on a job opening with better pay back in the better parts on Omega a few weeks ago, and none of us are particularly good in the kitchen. If you wanted, you could take his position, maybe even only temporarily if you want, and cook up some meals. You'd be making the average salary that the cook was making, which isn't that bad."

Russell was interested. He had never particularly thought about an actual career in cooking, but if what Stauni was saying was correct, he'd have an actual job on the ship instead of just wandering around every day, and he'd get paid for it.

"What's the pay rate for the job?" Russell asked, seriously considering taking the job.

"If I'm not mistaken, it's 300 credits a day, every day that you make the crew breakfast, dinner and lunch using the materials in the cooler. We don't expect perfection, but if you can cook better than all of us, hey it's a start."

Russell nodded in understanding. It certainly would make him feel useful to actually do something to help out on the ship; even if it was something as simple as cooking meals for everyone.

"How would I go about getting the cooking job officially?" Russell inquired.

"You'd have to ask Captain Ariana. She's the one in charge of the ship in general. You must've met her when you first came on board, right?"

Russell remembered the Asari Captain. She seemed friendly enough when he was introduced by CJ and Andrew, but she commanded respect while still being kind to the human.

"Yeah, I'll go see if i can go about getting the job position from her." Russell thanked the Salarian and two Humans and made his way out of the dining area.

Captain Ariana T'Roa liked to consider herself a friendly person, but also serious when she needed to be. That being said, she hated to be in fights, and as such allowed CJ and Andrew to do all combat. When they came back from a mission three weeks ago and brought a human with them, she instantly knew the human could be an asset to her crew.

The look in his eyes showcased his eagerness for adventure, something that Ariana could appreciate. His eagerness as he met new people, but the withdrawn way he held himself back. He had a few secrets to keep, and Ariana had no problems with that as long as those secrets didn't endanger the crew.

Ariana was pleasantly surprised to hear that the Human wanted to talk to her, and so she called him up to her cabin using the ship's intercom.

The young man walked into her cabin and looked around it as she studied his face. He had long brown hair that he wore frequently in a ponytail, which while not pulled up reached the lower reached of his back. His eyes were a curious mix of light blue and green, with flecks of hazel strewn throughout. He wore square glasses that hid his somewhat bushy eyebrows a little bit, and he had a short boxed beard facial hairstyle. Russell looked at Ariana, and the captain decided to see what he wanted to speak with her about.

"So, I heard that you wished to speak with me?" Ariana inquired. The human in front of her nodded.

"Yeah, I heard that the cooking position was vacant, and Stauni urged me to ask about filling the position myself. I have a couple of years' worth of experience in kitchens, and while I wasn't the head chef in any of them, I know a little bit about cooking and could probably be somewhat of an asset."

"Probably be an asset?" Ariana mused.

"Er, well that's for you and the crew to decide. If I don't perform to standard or expectations, you could always throw me out an airlock," he joked, rubbing the back of his head with his hands.

Ariana was intrigued. She had just been looking into hiring a new Chef at their next docking point, and someone who just joined them offered to do the job.

"Alright, we'll see about you doing dinners. No need for you to cook up every meal while you also plan on going on missions. I'll set up a contract that has a flat pay of one thousand credits a week, roughly a hundred fifty credits a day since you'll only be making dinners. If I feel like you deserve a raise, you will get it, no need to come to me about it unless you believe that you've earned it and haven't gotten it yet. You shall be granted access to the chef's food requisitions channel, and we shall stock whatever food you ask for by the port, so make sure that you have enough supplies to feed us for a week. I will send you an email with the proper guidelines and all that by the end of tonight. You begin tomorrow"

Russell smiled at the Asari captain and gave a mock salute.

"Thank you captain." He said, glad to have a job, and while the pay wasn't extremely grand or anything, it was better than that one time he had spent on Tuchanka, so he wasn't about to complain.

"If that's all, you may go about your business Russell, and I look forward to seeing what you can cook up for us." Ariana joked before waving the human off. As the human left her cabin, she looked around, seeing a pile of paperwork that she had just finished.

"Sure feels good to be on top of things, Eh Ariana?" She asked herself with a smile before getting ready to draw up Russell's chef contract.

Crutarok Jayak didn't particularly have much to do on the ship. He was the ship's gun, their bodyguard, and more importantly, their accepted Krogan friend.

Whenever he was off ship, he had plenty of things to do; be a badass, kill some pirates, flirt with the local guys, and generally be a pretty awesome dude. He liked to hang out with Andrew, and the two of them got in some sick intellectual arguments.

On the ship, CJ didn't really do much to waste the time away except for play with his Varren buddies, Grim and Reaper. He had raised them since they were but mere pups, training them for combat and obedience, making sure they only attacked who they knew was an enemy. They were incredibly smart for Varren, and CJ took pride in the fact that he raised them to be so loyal and strong. He had named the two after the human's old personification of Death, thinking that it was a fitting name for a pair of combat pets, but when he was alone with them on the ship all they knew was playing around with each other and himself, chasing each other around and terrorizing the rest of the ship. And by terrorizing he meant playing tricks on.

Like previously stated, Grim and Reaper were incredibly intelligent animals, and they knew exactly how to work the ship to a point where they liked it. Stauni always gave them food when they popped by and helped him get different tools for working, but John Junior never watched where he was walking and always tripped over the Varren, making them have a fun time of jumping on him and knocking him down. Dr. Varia Roberts secretly loved to see the Varren, but always acted like she hated it when they traipsed germs all over the Doctor's Office, and so they made it a point to visit her as often as possible for scratches before being shooed out.

CJ knew all of this, of course, and liked to join them on some of their shenanigans, but most of the time he sat around playing some awesome video games or cleaning his arsenal of guns (He had maybe, like twenty four guns in his locker, each with their own name and purpose in a fight), or polishing his gem encrusted Krogan Warhammer. He had gotten it as a gift from crushing the skull of a particularly nasty Klixen, a bug like alien that had been causing trouble near his old home on Tuchanka.

Andrew Lanor closed out his email, smiling to himself. He would be getting a brand new Go set at the next port they stopped at, an old human game about strategy and controlling more territory than the enemy by the end of the game.

The Salarian did quite a lot on the ship, just not all of it physical. Most of Andrew's job was his mental capabilities. He was an extremely gifted Salarian, reaching the end of his schooling two years early and already having some military training in strategic warfare, he knew how to handle small skirmishes best, which is how he landed a job on the ship as battle strategist, and one of the reasons he worked with CJ so closely.

His main purpose on the ship was their strategist, and while he could expand his mental abilities by playing strategy based board games, that wasn't his true purpose for being on the ship. Not that anybody other than CJ or captain Ariana needed to know what his objective was, anyways. It wasn't exactly something that you could get into the military and get funding for, he needed to reach his goal on his own methods, no matter the cost as long as nobody important died.

The Salarian sighed, looking across his room at the research data that Mordin Solus had given him back on Omega. "If you need something done correctly," the Doctor had told him, "do it yourself, someone else will screw it up."

He was going to complete his mission, and save this galaxy in the process.


	4. Chapter 4

"Alright guys, this mission is going to be crucial. Our mission is not go in, arms blazing and taking out the bad guys. We've received a transmission from a Quarian woman saying that Geth are invading the Sol system in the Exodus Cluster. Our mission isn't to chase the Geth, but rather to secure the information gathered by the Quarian and hurry it to the Citadel before anything serious happens." Captain Ariana briefed the three.

CJ nodded. Their job here wasn't to fight as many enemies as possible, but rather to rescue the Quarian and escort her to the Citadel. Alliance forces could take care of the Geth once there and take them out.

Andrew sighed. He really didn't like being on missions like this, ones that put him and the others in unnecessary danger because they didn't know what they were going into. He would rather have cameras and a good vantage point any day over searching a wide area for a single person.

Russell was excited... It was his second official mission working with those two, and they were looking for someone with important information that would save lives. They couldn't afford to screw this up, but Russell couldn't help but feel pumped up.

They all checked their weapons to make sure that they were in good condition before getting in their own drop car, the Challenger model Mako. It was equipped with a really bad gun that probably wouldn't be a good source of damage in open battle, but it was better than no gun; and with its sick black paint with teal lights, Russell didn't mind going anywhere in it. Plus it had real leather seats, a dealmaker!

CJ grunted as he entered the car. He had been forced to leave his Varren behind on the last two missions; close quarter combat in hallways wasn't the best place for them, and he couldn't bring them onto the planet they were going; there was barely any oxygen in the atmosphere for them to breathe.

The Challenger Mako got dropped to the surface, letting them see miles of, well, rock.

"A nice place to build your own dream home!" CJ joked with a laugh as they viewed the landscape before setting out towards the transmission signal location. They had ventured less than two miles before they came across a small metallic dome, the source of the signal.

"It looks like we'll have an inside fight if there are any enemies in there. Remember, our main priority is rescuing the Quarian woman, but if that means we have to clear a path to get to her and get her out, then we have to do so. If you see any organics, don't shoot unless you are sure that they plan on being aggressive." Andrew told the two of them as Russell pulled them up to the building.

"CJ, you stay in the front, we're going to need a distraction with your biotics in case we're against organics. If we have to fight Geth in this facility, then we'll have to employ brute force, or I'll have to get close to see if I can hack one of them, a strategy I don't like to use often due to the danger it puts me in. Russell, stay in the back with me and cover me from any enemies behind, prepare to use a biotic barrier in case things look hairy. Understood?"

The Human and Krogan nodded, and got out of the Challenger, their spacesuits supplying them air as they made their way across the low gravity surface. They reached the building and entered relatively easily, there didn't appear to be a lot of security, which was either alarming or really good for the trio.

They made their way through the small facility, not finding any enemies until they came into a wide open area. They took cover behind a ledge as they saw what looked like perhaps forty Geth units gathered around a large spaceship.

"We shouldn't engage them here if we can help it." CJ grunted out. "Too many of them, I can't take them all without taking a few hard hits and Andrew can't hack all of them to fight each other. Let's keep looking."

Andrew nodded in agreement and they continued through the facility, looking for any signs of the Quarian before they heard static on their radios.

"This is _static_ nar Rayya, if you can help _static_ I'm located on the second fl- _static_ in the camera room. Come as soon _static_ can."

"Copy, we're on our way, this is Andrew, Russell and Crutarok Jayak of the SS Poseidon, here to rescue you and get you to the Citadel safely. Hold your position ma'am." Andrew replied back into the radio. They made their way to the second floor, finding no Geth units to fight at all.

"It seems a little bit odd to me that we haven't had to fight any Geth yet," Russell said worriedly. "We saw a bunch of them in that main area back there, but none of them saw us and we snuck passed them because they weren't paying attention to us. It doesn't feel right, almost like a trap."

Andrew nodded. "I was just thinking the same thing Russell. We need to stay cautious in case any fighting breaks out, but until then remain as stealthy as possible."

They eventually came across the room that had a camera symbol on it, funnily enough. It seemed ironic that Geth would even use a camera room, but then again it made sense that at least one would be in charge of ensuring that nobody was snooping around the facility.

The door opened as they went to knock, and from inside of it walked out a Quarian woman, holding a simple pistol, and giving a quick sweep of the hallway before relaxing a bit.

"Thank you for coming," came her metallic voice. "I've been stuck in here for four days, and I've got information that the Council is going to want to hear as soon as possible."

"Don't thank us yet," CJ laughed, saying the same thing to her that he once said to Russell. "We aren't out of here yet, you can thank us once we get to the Citadel."

She nodded and they pulled out, backtracking the way they came through the building, finding little to no evidence of Geth activity until they once again reached the main area. However, a Geth unit was patrolling the area around where they had initially gone through, rendering their escape seemingly impossible.

But the Quarian had a few tricks up her sleeve, er, suit. She quickly opened her omni tool and hacked the Geth soldier into a passive mode as they approached it, and then made quick work of disconnecting its memory core from it, rendering it useless.

"This'll come in handy later; I just have to do this…" The Quarian made a few motions on her Omni Tool and sighed. "Only got a little bit of new information, but anything is potentially important. We'll hear what it has to say when we get off this planet."

They nodded and quickly exited the facility, surprised that they hadn't had any real fighting to get done at all. The got in the Challenger Mako and drove away before requesting a pickup. On the ride, the Quarian played around with the memory core a little bit before suddenly it played a message.

"Eden Prime was a major victory; the Beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the 'Conduit." After a moment, a second mature female voice says "And one step closer to the return of the 'Reapers'."

"Keelah." The Quarian woman says, "They already attacked a human colony, and it sounds like they plan on finding something called the Reapers? This is important, way more important than the knowledge that they were in the area. We've got to get this to the Citadel immediately."

Russell nodded, feeling stunned. A human colony attacked, and probably thousands dead by the sound of it.

CJ was quiet for a moment before voicing his thoughts. "It might be my mind playing tricks on me, but that was the voice of a particular Turian, one Saren Arterius, a council Spectre. It would appear that he's gone rogue. I'm not positive about the other voice, but anybody working with the Geth need to be taken down. We'll get you to the Citadel in a few hours, miss… sorry we didn't catch your name earlier, static over the radio.

The Quarian woman looked between the three of the ragtag makeshift heroes. "My name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, but you can call me Tali for short; it's a pleasure to meet you all." She sighed, clearly disturbed by the fact that she hadn't been able to get the information to the council in time to save Eden Prime.

Andrew was working furiously with his own omni tool, swiping information to the left and right, writing down notes and moving things around before he turned back to Tali and asked her, "Is it alright if I have a copy of that voice message, I'm working on a project," CJ shot him a knowing look. "and it may be greatly assisted by the knowledge of the recording you have there."

Tali'zorah shrugged and said, "Sure, as long as you don't plan on assisting these guys, that's not a problem. Seeing as how you guys are helping me out here instead of killing me I have no problem doing this for you." She made a few motions on her omni tool and confirmed that they both had a copy of the data before they remained in silence.

Russell walked around the SS Poseidon as they were on their way to the closest Mass Effect Relay, they were probably about thirty minutes out before they went through and dropped Tali'zorah off at the Citadel. He couldn't help but feel as if he had to do something to help out, but he had no idea what he could do.

As he walked through the hallways, he saw the Quarian sitting down and decided to go over.

"Hey, Tali, I'm Russell, I was one of the ones who got you out of the facility." He began awkwardly. He had no idea where he was going with this. It's not like he expected any kind of reward or anything, but the Quarian turned to look at him.

"Ah, yes, thank you Russell once more for coming to my assistance. I just wish that I had been able to get off planet sooner, but the Geth had destroyed the ship I came down in and I was stranded in their base."

Russell sighed. "I just wish there was something more that I could do to help. Eden Prime being attacked? That's a serious blow to humanity's goal of expanding. And now Geth are going around attacking outposts and whatnot?"

Tali thought for a moment before pulling out her omni tool. "How about we share emails?" She suggested. "If any important information comes up that we can use, we'll send it to the other and hope that we can help out in some way or that the information helps us save some lives. At the very least it's a start."

Russell smiled and pulled out his own omni tool. "Sure, that sound like a great idea Tali, you're really smart."

The Quarian rubbed her head, "I'm not exactly the smartest woman in the galaxy, but thank you at least now we can contact each other when we go our separate ways."

Russell nodded. "I'll keep in touch Tali'zorah nar Rayya." He said before walking off, knowing that he had at least some way to help in the crisis that was about to unfold.

CJ fed his Varren some leftover steak as Andrew paced around his room, talking rapidly.

"If the Reapers in the same message are the same Reapers that I've been investigating, we're getting too damned close to the event… I've got to get in touch with some of my old contacts. Silinus? Rafael? Washura? Damn it! I've been following the signs but there doesn't seem to be any time. Wait!" He exclaimed, startling Grim with his enthusiasm. "If I can get in touch with Dr. T'Soni, she might be able to help me out. If only I had a way to get in contact with her, she never gave me her email. Gah!"

"You know, you should really stop stressing about it all." CJ said, throwing the last scrap of meat to Reaper. "We've got our own Reaper here that can deal with all the others, after all, we'll be fine. Plus, it's not as if it'll happen instantly, you said there had to be some sort of trigger?"

Andrew stopped his pacing. "Yes, you're right. If only we could figure out what that trigger was, we could prevent their return, or at least, stall it for a couple of years. But that wouldn't be enough. We'd need a miracle." He sighed. "I'll stop thinking about it for now, you're right, worrying will get me nowhere."

"And maybe while you're not busy doing anything else, maybe you should email your adopted parents, see if they're holding up fine after the attack on Eden Prime. While they aren't on that planet, being in a nearby system and being humans themselves they probably have a lot on their plates."

Andrew nodded. His own parents had died when he was less than a year old, and he had been adopted by a human couple, friends of the Salarians. He wanted to make sure that they were safe, so he decided that he would write them an email once he got back to his room.

Safety had to come first, his own, his friends' safety, and his parents' safety were what mattered to Andrew Lanor most in the galaxy.


End file.
